Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/244

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NOTES AND QUERIES. cio- s. u. SEPT. 3, 1904.

poet of some power, though not equal to some of Ms contemporaries. On this matter the modern student who examines his writings carefully will probably see no reasons for reversing the judgment of his own time, though he will frequently find him not a little dull. He was long resident in Ireland, but never severed his connexion with the English Bar. He was counsel for the Crown in the trial of the Countess of Somerset for the murder of Sir "Thomas Overbury (not Lord Overbury, as the writer calls him). He was also for a time Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. Though not a ^politician in advance of his age, he was a great -administrator, who, if a free hand could have been given to him, would have ruled with justice, and ^we believe with clemency. His death was tragic. He was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England, l)ut died the very day on which he should have taken his seat. The second volume of the 'Cam- bridge Modern History,' which relates to the period of the Reformation, is analyzed with great -care. Very little partisan feeling is shown. We regard the estimate of the character of Charles V. as among the fairest we have ever seen, but cannot speak so highly of that of Luther. The writer, however, points out that " of toleration Luther had as little idea as Charles V. himself." The view taken of the Council of Trent is not so wide and elastic as was to be desired. 'The Life in the Universe' is a review of Dr. Alfred Wallace's volume that attracted so much attention a short -time ago. The writer is, on the whole, in sympathy with Dr. Wallace, his criticisms are always fair, and he points out with great ability and force the strong objections which may be taken against there Toeing life in any of the heavenly bodies except the one we inhabit. Until, however, we know in what life consists, a question which is as obscure to us to-day as it was to the mediaeval schoolmen, we can never do more than guess as to whether it has limitations, and if it has, in what they consist. 4 The History of Magic during the Christian Era' as it is based on a wide knowledge of occult phe- nomena. * The Pathway of Reality ' is a review of the Right Hon. R. B. Haldane's Gifford Lectures. It is hard reading, but will be found instructive by those who can follow the argument.
 * is a paper which will be of interest to folk-lorists,

IN the English Historical Review for July Prof. Firth has issued the third section of his papers on Clarendon's 'History of the Rebellion.' He takes a somewhat more favourable view than we do of the historian, although he fully realizes Ms limitations. For example, he points out his unfairness to Goring. No one in these days, we -imagine, who is acquainted with his character could become a partisan of Goring. His private life had many defects, and as a soldier very little can be set down to his credit; but justice is due to all men, and in awarding this Clarendon has failed. The account of the escape of Balfour and the Parlia- mentary horse at the time of the catastrophe in Cornwall, when Essex's infantry were compelled to surrender, is attributed by Clarendon to Goring's negligence, or something worse. Walker, however, who is commonly trustworthy, tells us quite a different story, showing that Goring was stationed so that it was impossible for him to obstruct the Parliamentarian cavalry. "The truth is," Mr. Firth says, " that he [Clarendon] and Goring had quarrelled in 1645, and he could believe anything to

the discredit of his enemy." Dr. Garnett gives some interesting letters, hitherto unpublished, which passed between Herring, Archbishop of York, and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, during the Jacobite rising of 1745. They were great friends, and expressed their feelings to each other in the most open manner. The archbishop was loyal to Protestantism and the House of Hanover, and seems to have had something beyond a political regard for George II. On 7 September he says, "town I am frightened at our present position, and it looks like a demonstration to me that we are now, as to the health of the body politic, in the condition of a man who does not ask his doctor whether he may recover, but how long he thinks he can hold out." Prof. Bury contributes an im- portant study of certain early documents relating to St. Patrick. To appreciate his arguments fully, it is necessary to be master of the Celtic language. Miss Bateson has discovered and printed an English Court Leet record of Peterborough for 1461. It differs from the Latin text, and is fuller also. It is important as showing how public records did not on all occasions give the whole of what was sworn in court. Mr. Robert S. Rait contributes an excel- lent paper on the late Prof. Powell. We perhaps need hardly say that the reviews, which occupy a considerable space, are written with the usual ability.

TIIK first folk-lore postcard is issued by Mr. R. R. Edwards, of Castle Street, Salisbury, and shows the Wiltshire moonrakers, " down 'Vizes way," striving to rake the moon out of the river.

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